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Author : K. Brutents
Professor, Doctor of Science (History)
IN A NUTSHELL, our time is best defined as a "time of
changes." Changes have spread far and wide to practically all
sides of life. They differ in scope and impact from local to un-
precedentedly consequential and from political makeup to cru-
cial shifts; they are responsible, to a great and increasing degree,
for the image of the present and for our future.
The developing countries, a space of impressive shifts, are a
prominent element of the global torrent of changes and a
scene of the post-colonial phase of the great geopolitical rev-
olution.
Today, Asia is the epicenter of a vast space of transformations of gigantic dimensions started
by the great geopolitical revolution on three continents - Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The international configuration has changed a great deal even though very much as before the
United States is the world's strongest power in practically all force-related respects. This situation
may change since other countries can build up their own power. The United States is not merely
a suzerain of the West. It claims the role of an irreproachable embodiment of Western values
and interests and the divine right to represent and defend the Western interests and values.
The time of hegemony has passed. This idea is gaining popularity in the international community
that is talking about the decline of the United States.
Europe's depressive evolution has created a favorable context for the developing countries that
demand, with growing insistency that might evolve into a full-scale campaign, to revise Europe's
representation in international structures.
The Asian intellectual and military elite demonstrated determination. They assumed responsibility
for their countries, the forms, course and instruments of transformations and their results. It
was thanks to these efforts that Asia became a zone of fruitful quest for economic models that
would harmonize with the local conditions, national and cultural identities. This is especially true
of Asia that has become the driver of global development.
The developing countries attach special importance to the nature and state of their relations
with the West in which Washington calls the tune; they are equally important from the global
angle. Today, the West and the former metropolitan countries that talk so much about democracy
and the predominance of democratic institutions should admit that they are in some kind of
debt to their former colonies and extend a helping hand to them.
There is another novelty: NATO is developing into an instrument of relations with the devel-
oping world; this is the road leading to the Alliance's de facto globalization.
This means that the United States and the West led by Washington will not abandon their usual
policies - they are merely seeking ways to make them more efficient.
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The Great Geopolitical Revolution: Results So Far